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Scripps College receives $5 million gift for women’s leadership center

Scripps College received a $5 million gift to establish a LASPA Center for Leadership on Monday.

Lori Bettison-Varga, Scripps College president, announced the gift Monday in a news release after Eileen Schock Laspa and Jude Laspa made the keystone gift.

“The Laspas have lived a life marked by leadership and service in the public and private sectors,” Bettison-Varga said in a statement. “Their remarkable legacy of service will carry forward with the work of the Center. Their transformative gift will impact the College and its students for generations to come. We are thankful for this wonderful gift.”

The center, which will have a nationwide search for a direction soon, will incorporate programming that focuses on 21st century leadership that includes public service, action, analysis, scholarship and leadership.

According to the release, the center will “provide students with new opportunities to work closely with extraordinary leaders, especially women, in areas such as, art, science, business, education, media, government and social entrepreneurship through strategic national and international partnerships and a visiting practitioners and scholars program.”

From 1996 to 1999 Eileen Laspa served as a Scripps Colelge trustee and graduated from the university in 1967. Jude Laspa graduated from Harvey Mudd College in 1965.

“We are very pleased to help make the Leadership Center a reality as a resource to help enrich the educational experience at Scripps College and to better prepare our students for productive and impactful lives in whatever career field they follow,” said Eileen Laspa in a statement.

Officials said additional fund raising for the center will continue including seed funds for programming, support for the center’s physical location on campus that is to be determined and endowment funds to secure the center’s future.